Scenic Routes

As a side project, (one of many) I've recently been revisiting my scenery collection and sprucing it up a little as over the past few years it's begun to look a little tired. I've always had a soft spot for creating scenery and over the past decade Games Workshop have put out some great pieces of pre-made buildings that really invoke the ridiculously grim-dark architecture of the 41st millennium. Before the advent of Necromunda bulkheads, the only terrain that was available to buy was purely card based and the majority of the scenery used was either found objects such as lumps of cork or crudely made buildings. Last year, I posted a few photos of some Ork buildings I made with my Grandad over 20 years ago last year (christ where has that time gone?) and having some time off work, finally based them up and finished them off this week.

Definately not Ork church.

25 SQUIGS IN THE ROOM NEXT DOOR.

Was tempted to make this into an Ork toilet because I'm 12.

Reasonably happy with the way they've turned out! I tried to reflect as much detail as possible from the old paint job whilst making them look a little more like the amazing 90's Ork terrain the GW studio put out. 

The Squigster's of Mercy gig was good, but the crowd agreed that their earlier material was stronger.

However, I've fallen out of love with the majority of the kit terrain out there because it is all so similar. Even the new Necromunda-esque scenery that came with the new Armageddon Shadow Wars set is a bit suspect. Whilst it is festooned with detail, it leaves little to the imagination like the scratch built model buildings that graced White Dwarf in the 80s and 90s. However, the new shipping containers are incredible! Proper amazing kits to put together and paint. I don't mind each of these looking exactly the same because they're supposed to have that imperialist uniformity. I just can't get on board with the idea that every hive city looks the same. I'm not sure I'll be making much more scenery in the future as I simply don't have much space left to store new pieces. However, I hope to keep going back and adding more detail to the stuff I already have.

Amazon deliveries in the future are even less dependable.

In other hobby news, I'm almost done with my Dark Eldar Armageddon kill team (photos soon) so I'm hoping to get a couple of games in with them. I've also finished off the High Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower, which was fun to do, although the rest of that project will be taking a backseat for a little while so I can concentrate on finishing a few other things off. I'm also glad to say that the very last element of the Emperor's Children has been finished; another Contemptor joins the ranks of the loyalist few of Istvaan III. I've also recently picked up a Fulgrim model too and plan to do a little conversion work to create a pre-fallen version of the Primarch. 

Love these kits so much. That claw is proper threatening

I found it so hard not to festoon this guy in etched brass. However, I couldn't have him out-blunging Rylanor!

All them primary colours.

Lastly, I recently fancied painting a dragon and came across this awesome old Nick Bibby sculpt on eBay for less than £4.00. Couldn't resist the thing and had a blast painting him up. I also got to try using some of the new edge paints on him which are fantastic. Really impressed on how they make features pop. Plus, if the effect is too sharp, you can tone them down really easily with a wash or two. This fella will be joining the High Elves for all those games of Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition I'll never be playing.

Look at his majesty. 

Love the expression on this guy! Well snaggletooth.

Hopefully going to get back into a fairly regularly pattern of painting now that we've finished some work on the house.  Really looking forward to getting some things ticked off the list! I'm not sure I'll be doing Armies on Parade in October this year as I don't have the space to store a new tile, but may try and doing something for fun for it with stuff I already have because I'm lazy and rubbish.

Quarterly Plod

How is it April already? I've been a little distracted of late and haven't had as much time to paint as usual, but I have managed to make a start on the little High Elf project and finish off a few outstanding single models that have been on the list. I've also been inspired by some of the Dark AOS  stuff that's been doing the rounds and started putting together a random Chaotic centaur dude. I'll hopefully have him finished by the end of the month once I'm happy with the conversion. He's inspired by both the older more canine Khorne features as well as one of my favourite artists - should be a fun project!

GOBLIN GREEN FOREVER.

Firstly, here's the start of the High Elf army. I'm planning on adding an additional regiment of 15 archers and then maybe painting up mage mounted on a griffon, but we'll see. Really looking forward to starting the old repeater bolt-thrower! The Warhammer Quest Ranger was a joy to paint, although I did manage to somehow make him look like a fabulous drag-queen facially. The rest of the army will follow this colour scheme pretty closely.

Gagging on Elven eleganza.

Lastly, I was lucky enough to snag a limited edition Canoness Veridyan model when they were released in January. I remember being enthralled by John Blanche's artwork that this figure is based on and even now it's an incredibly evocative image. The model itself was a bit of a pain to paint as the face had next to no detail to the right of the nose, so the eye and all the facial contouring on that side had to be painted in. 

-2 movement modifier for hobble heels.

I promise you there is an eye painted underneath that fringe!

Close up, it is a little clumsy, but overall I'm happy. It's so nice to see models based on original artwork. I'd be stoked to see more of this kind of thing from GW, particularly if they revisited more of John Blanche or maybe Mark Gibbons's old work!

Fucking nails. Those stabby pointe moves are kill. GW, I dare you to make this.

Paint Flashback

There seems to have been a recent trend in the Oldhammer camp for tracking down and making good old, out of production paint. I must admit to having thought about purchasing some of the old sets, having a fondness for the artwork on the boxes and a reoccurring desire to paint something in Moody Blue or Worm Purple (OG Genestealers I'm looking at you). However, it wasn't until recently I managed to luck out on purchasing one of the later, hex-bottle styled Citadel Colour paint sets that I started to think that there may be some reason other than nostalgia for collecting old paint. 

All sealed, still with original brush!

At the most basic level, this stuff still works. When you seal one of these pots, they remain sealed. The most recent selection of GW paints are terrible when it comes to both tightness of seal and longevity of use. I've thrown away over a dozen pots in the past year because the paint has solidified despite being fully closed. The new pot design is also more susceptible to rim clogging (hurhurhur), which wastes paint and further prevents the lids from closing. You're also getting more paint in these older pots too. Whilst the coverage isn't as good as the new base paints (which are fantastic) the majority of the older paints still lay down a solid cover over a coat or two. Also, the old paints can be picked up for the same price, if not cheaper if you're lucky. Whilst the 1993 range may lack the breadth and technical optionality of the modern collection, it more than makes up for in Goblin Green, Blood Red and Snakebite Leather. Plus they smell nicer too. I've tentative plans to create a small fourth edition High Elf army using these paints as I've recently had a real urge to visit them as a  (another!!) distraction project. 

Because I'm an obsessive dick, I bought a working copy too.

On the subject of paint, I finished off my Colourblind Demon entry for the local shop competition last week. The idea behind the event is that you randomly pick four different paints from sealed containers and choose another two from the rack. If you're lucky you'll then have six colours that work together on any model of your choosing. Thankfully I picked out a few greens and one of the new Thousand Son blue and had the perfect figure waiting for it! Meet Bogbrush, a 1988 Bob Olley Black Orc.

Minty fresh Orc.

I must admit, I'm looking forward to actually finishing this fella off as without being able to add any other colours to highlight or shade with, he feels only around 70% done. Still, I did manage to play about with using some of the Silver Birch leaves I collected during the Autumn on the base, pretty stoked on how they came out!